


A Rousing Good Time

by liairene



Series: A Visitor's Guide to Highbury [4]
Category: Pride and Prejudice & Related Fandoms, Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bakery and Coffee Shop, Gen, Modern Era, Movie Night, Small Towns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:54:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24343108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liairene/pseuds/liairene
Summary: Friday night is movie night for the Highbury gang. It's also a good way to introduce new friends to the group.
Series: A Visitor's Guide to Highbury [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/908481
Comments: 1
Kudos: 21





	A Rousing Good Time

“I should be clear about something,” Elsa said as Will followed her into her apartment. “My idea of a rousing good time on a Friday night is filling my wine glass a little bit more than I ought and flopping on my couch to watch a few episodes of _The West Wing_ or a really good movie.”

“Really?” he replied as he took of his coat. “I totally had you pegged as the shots of vodka in a club girl.”

She turned around and smiled at him. “You’re hilarious.”

“Elsa, you invited me to a gathering whose attendees will consist of a grad student, children’s librarian, a woman who owns a café, a woman who works in the corporate offices of her father’s business, and two accountants. I think I was pretty clear on what I was getting into.”

“And a history professor,” she corrected.

“A history professor?” he repeated.

“Yeah, Chris Brandon is coming too,” Elsa said. “He’s a friend of ours and a history professor at Highbury College.”

“Okay,” Will said. “You invited me to hang out with a grad student, children’s librarian, a woman who owns a café, a woman who works in the corporate offices of her father’s business, two accountants, and a history professor.”

“You make us sound almost boring.”

“If you can wait another week or so, I can get you a third accountant.”

“You get me a third accountant, and I’ll make popcorn.”

Annie looked at her roommate. “You’re not making popcorn tonight? You always make popcorn.”

Elsa sighed. “You’re no fun.”

“What? I’m trying to keep you accountable for your absurd threats.”

“Okay,” Elsa said. “Fine, get me a third accountant and I’ll make a pie. Is that better, Annie?”

“Much better,” was the assent. “After all, I do love pie.”

* * *

Friday movie nights usually were centered on watching an older movie. “George doesn’t really like chick flicks, and Nora doesn’t like action movies,” Annie explained.

“But George really likes Cary Grant,” Elsa added.

“And Elsa loves Audrey Hepburn.”

“So you watch _Charade_ a lot?” Will queried.

Elsa laughed. “We do love that movie, but it’s not the only movie that we watch.”

“Yeah, sometimes we watch _The Philadelphia Story_.”

“We have a pretty broad selection of movies.”

Annie nodded. “I think we have good taste in movies.”

“Our movie collection is over there,” Elsa said pointing at a large bookshelf. “Feel free to peruse it.”

He did so. “This is really broad range of movies.”

“Blame it on two people with very different taste in movies,” Annie replied. “One of us loves Disney movies. One of us loves romantic comedies. One of us loves episodic detective stories. One of us loves nature documentaries.”

“I’m going to guess that you’re detective stories and nature documentaries?”

She laughed. “Actually, I’m romantic comedies and nature documentaries.” She paused and picked up a large black cat who was meowing around her feet. “Hello, Lord Peter, are you lonely, sir?”

“Lord Peter?” Will repeated.

“Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey,” Annie said. “Elsa named her cats Lord Peter and Harriet Vane.”

“Oh yeah, Nora and Elsa were telling me about them on Wednesday. He’s allergic to fish, right?”

“Yep, and being well-behaved,” was the reply.

* * *

Nora arrived next. “Chris was pulling in when you buzzed me in, you should probably wait for him.”

“Probably,” Elsa said.

“It would be the kind thing to do,” Nora told as she put two plastic bags on the table.

Elsa stuck her foot in the door to keep it from closing all the way and leaned against the door. “I can wait. Well, I’ll do my best.”

Nora began emptying the contents of the bags. “Now that’s Elsa Bennet in a nutshell. Impatient as can be, but she’s still determined to do her best.”

A minute later, the doorbell buzzed, and Elsa pushed a button to unlock the first floor door to the stairs to the apartment. Quick footsteps were heard on the wooden stairs, and then a man’s voice said, “Elspeth, move your foot and let me in.”

She laughed and stepped out of the way allowing a man about Will’s height into the apartment. “Hey, Chris.”

“Hey, kid,” he replied.

“Chris, this is Will Darcy, George’s friend. Will, this is Chris Brandon, history professor at Highbury College and general rabble-rouser.”

Chris shook Will’s hand. “Good to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“Now, Elspeth, since when am I a general rabble-rouser? I can’t remember the last time that I roused a rabble.”

Will paused. “Elspeth? Can I ask why you call her Elspeth?”

“Because it’s my name,” Elsa replied. “Growing up, my mom was one of like seven girls in her class named Mary, so she’s always gone by her first and middle name.”

“The Great Mary Frances,” Nora inserted.

“Legally, her name is just Mary Frances, but yes,” Elsa affirmed. “Anyway, she decided that none of her daughters were even going to have classmates with their names, and she gave us all unique names. So we’re Gwendolyn, Elspeth, Maeve, Camilla, and Isla.”

“Wow.”

“And exactly none of them go by those names,” Chris added.

“Really?”

Elsa nodded. “We’re Gwen, Elsa, Mae, Cam although she’s started to use Camilla more, and Lily.”

“Lily?”

“Isla’s middle name is Lillian. When she was in kindergarten or first grade, she got really sick of telling people how to pronounce her name, and she decided to just go by Lily. My mom hated it especially because there was another Lily in her class, but she’s never looked back.”

“And your mom has pretty much accepted it by now,” Annie remarked from the doorway where she was cuddling Lord Peter.

“True.”

“How did you become Elsa?”

Elsa smiled. “When I was four, I decided that Elspeth was just too much of a name for me, and I announced that I wanted to be Elsa instead of Elspeth.”

“How, dare I ask, did your mother take that?”

“She didn’t mind that one as much. Elsa is still a unique name, and there weren’t any other girls named Elsa in my class. And I don’t dislike the name Elspeth. It was really just a lot of name for me when I was four, and now everyone knows me as Elsa.”

Before they could discuss her name any further, the buzzer sounded again. “That must be Em and George,” Annie commented.

“I hope it is,” Elsa replied as she unlocked the lower door. “Otherwise, I don’t know who I just let into my apartment. Although based on the amount of bickering I hear coming up the stairs, I think that it’s George and Emma.”

“Oh my word, George,” an irritated voice came through the door. “That’s not what he meant.”

“Don’t defend him, Em. Thanks, Elsa,” George said as Elsa let them into the apartment.

“He means well,” Emma replied as she stomped into the apartment. “Hey, Elsa, Nora.”

“You keep saying that,” George said. “But I don’t think that you’re seeing this the way that I do.”

“Obviously I’m not.”

“And obviously you two are now in my apartment with several other people,” Elsa inserted. “So perhaps we could drop the argument, make some popcorn, and watch a movie?”

“But Elsa, he just does not understand.”

“Emma, you can argue with George later. Right now, just put a bookmark in it, and go sit on my couch.”

“Only if Nora gives me ice cream first,” Emma returned.

Nora held out a bowl. “Here you go.”

Emma looked down at the bowl. “Ooooh, mint chocolate chip ice cream with hot fudge sauce and whipped cream? This is amazing.”

“Good, go sit on the couch with it,” Elsa said. “Everybody else, get ice cream. Get drinks. Go sit on the couch.”

“Or in a chair,” Annie said.

“What are we watching?” George queried.

“ _The Philadelphia Story_ ,” Annie replied. “Unless there are any really strong objections, and then we’re watching _His Girl Friday_.”

“Ah, Katharine Hepburn,” Emma sighed. “You can never go wrong with her.”

“Dinah Lord,” Elsa replied with an even louder sigh. “Die-Nah Lord, my heroine.”

“Most women watch this movie and are inspired by Katharine Hepburn’s character,” Chris said to Will. “Elsa fell in love with the spunky younger sister when she was like thirteen and has spent most of her adult life modeling herself after a ten year old in a movie from 1940.”

“Wow.”

“I find that this movie makes Elsa make much more sense.”

“I’ve never seen it.”

Chris grinned. “Oh, man, it’s a good one. It’s a really good one.”

* * *

A few hours later, Will had to agree with Chris. The movie was a good one. Dinah, the younger sister of the protagonist, was delightfully spunky. “So you’ll be back next week?” Nora asked.

“I don’t see why not.”

“Good, we’re planning on _His Girl Friday_ ,” Emma said.

“And bring Ed,” George added.

“Why are you telling me that?”

“Because you’ll be at the house with him while I’ll be being subjected to all of the opinions of Henry Woodhouse once again, as I do most Friday evenings,” George replied.

“Have you two told him that you’re dating yet?” Elsa asked.

“Not on your life,” Emma replied. “I’m not looking forward to his inevitable rambling about how he’s all alone in the world and no one wants him when he finds out about us.”

“How do you explain George coming to dinner pretty much every Friday?”

“He has to eat,” Emma said simply. “And he lives alone.”

Will made a face. “No he doesn’t!”

“Hush,” Emma told him calmly. “My dad doesn’t know about you yet.”

“And Ed is coming tomorrow!”

“Well, don’t tell my dad about him either.”

George sighed. “Emma, you really need to start being a little more honest with your dad.”

“Nope, bad idea.”

* * *

Ed Ferrars arrived in Highbury a bit after noon the next day and spent most of the rest of the day settling into George’s house. Sunday, he joined George and Will for Mass at St. Martha’s, and then Will and Ed experienced their first Sunday brunch at George’s. As she’d told Will before, Elsa brought coffee beans, a grinder, and a beautifully braided loaf of brioche. Nora brought a quiche. Annie brought an egg bake. Chris brought orange juice and champagne. Oliver and Alice Kingsleigh brought a variety of breakfast meats.

“Holy crap,” Elsa said when she walked into the kitchen where Will, George, and Ed were assembled.

“What?” George asked.

“Them,” she set her contributions to brunch on the counter and then pointed from Will to Ed and back again. “Are they clones?”

Will laughed. “No, but we get that a lot.”

“We get asked if we’re twins a lot,” Ed said. “I don’t think we hear much about clones.”

“You look exactly the same. It’s uncanny.”

“We’re double cousins,” Will explained. “My dad was Ed’s mom’s brother, and my mom was his dad’s sister.”

Elsa listened carefully moving her finger around in the air. “So you’re basically brothers.”

“We have the same amount of shared genetic material as siblings do,” Ed told her.

“Which is kind of amazing if you realize that Ed’s older sister is Jack Dashwood’s wife,” George added.

Elsa stared at Ed. “You’re related to Anna?”

He nodded. “She’s my older sister.”

She shook her head and then turned to Will. “You’re related to her? How? How on earth are you related to Anna?”

Will smiled slightly. “Well, like Ed, she’s my cousin.”

“But you seem so nice, so normal, so human!”

Will snorted, and Ed laughed. “Elsa, I think that you and I are going to get along well.”

“Have you met before?” Will asked, looking at his cousin.

“She came to visit Nora in college a couple of times, and I’ve been up here to see Nora a few times over the years. Elsa owns a coffee shop, so naturally I’ve met her. And let me tell you. This girl knows her way around a sandwich.”

“She’s good with the avocado distribution?”

Ed nodded. “Very good.”

“To change the subject completely,” Elsa said.

“Oh Elsa,” Chris said as he walked into the kitchen. “You have, as ever, all of the subtlety of a hand grenade.”

She smiled up at him. “But you love me.”

“For reasons known only to God,” he replied with a smirk.

She rolled her eyes. “Anyway, I just want to know how to tell you two apart.”

“Well, currently I’m wearing a blue shirt, and Ed is wearing a black one.”

“But in general, I don’t wear glasses often, and Will usually does,” Ed offered. “And my cousin is more likely to wear a beard even if he isn’t at the moment.”

“Maybe I should start growing mine again so as to avoid confusion if we’re going to be working together,” Will offered.

“You do look better with a beard than I do.”

“How does that work?” Elsa queried.

“I’m the clean-cut handsome one, and Will is the rogue-ish charmer.”

She nodded. “I see.”

“It’s like how George looks like an all-American football player when he’s clean-shaven and like a lumberjack with a beard,” Chris told Elsa.

She nodded. “I see. Well, I think that they’re both going to be a charming addition to this community after learn how to tell them apart.”

* * *

The following Friday, movie was cancelled due to an emergency girls’ night. So Will, Ed, Chris, and George spent the evening watching baseball. “Any clue what the girls are up to?” Chris asked at one point in the evening.

George shook his head. “Elsa called it. That’s all I know.”

“It’s probably about Annie,” Chris offered. “She’s had a rough week or so.”

“That’s true.”

“Knowing them, they’re probably just sitting around drinking wine and watching movies that George won’t let them watch on an ordinary Friday night.”

George rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell me that you would willingly sit through _You’ve Got Mail_.”

“Not every Friday, but I could do it once in a while especially if it would make Annie happy. She sits through superhero movies for you.”

“I’ll think about it.”

* * *

Sunday brunch came, and the ladies were all surprisingly subdued. Elsa seemed more or less fine when the guys stopped in for their breakfast each morning. When Will and Ed arrived at Annie and Elsa’s apartment on Friday evening, Annie seemed her usual cheerful self, and Elsa was busy making a pie. “What kind of pie?” Ed asked.

“Apple cinnamon,” she replied. “And then I put a bit of whisky too.”

“Sounds tasty.”

“I love making pie.”

“And she’s very good at it,” Annie said. “She makes George a birthday pie every year.”

“And she does all of the pies for Thanksgiving,” Nora added. “She’s really good at pie.”

“I direct the pie making. I have help.”

“But the recipes are yours, and you’re definitely the artistic direction.”

Elsa shrugged and smiled. “I like making pie. They just make sense to me. It’s like how Annie feels about scones.”

“Scones?” Ed asked.

“She makes amazing scones,” Nora said. “They’re her specialty.”

Ed raised his eyebrows. “I’m looking forward to trying them.”

“They sell them at the KW,” Nora told him.

“Oh, excellent.”

“What about you two?” Elsa queried. “Do you two have any culinary specialties?”

“Will is oddly good at Middle Eastern food,” Ed said. “He also makes an incomparable beef stew. He definitely knows his way around a kitchen.”

“Don’t let Ed sell himself short,” his cousin returned. “He makes a killer pasta sauce.”

“And his shakshuka is incredible,” Nora added.

“How did both of you end up being gifted at Middle Eastern food?” Annie queried.

“We both really like it, and to save money on takeout, we’ve both worked on learning to cook it,” Ed told her.

“I like that. I might own a café, but I really do support people learning to become good home cooks.”

He smiled. “I like that. Lucy, my girlfriend, doesn’t like to cook.”

“Lame,” Will remarked.

“Shut it,” Ed told him as the doorbell buzzed in the backround..

“What? I do not understand people who don’t like cooking.”

“Not everyone has to like everything you like.”

“I know that,” his cousin replied. “I just think that cooking is a form of magic.”

“Bread making is a form of magic,” Elsa returned.

Will pointed emphatically at her. “Truth.”

George had walked in a few minutes earlier. “And this is why I thought that you two would make good friends.”

“Because we both like bread making?” Elsa asked.

“You two should have a long talk about challah some day.”

Will looked at Elsa. “You like making challah?”

She smiled. “Braiding bread is one of my favorite things.”

“We do need to talk more.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” George said. “Where is Chris? I agreed to watch _You’ve Got Mail_. Can’t we just get this over with?”

“No movie until the pie is done,” Ed said. “I was promised pie with my movie, and I’m not watching the movie without pie.”

“Spoken like a man who knows his mind,” Emma said.

Mercifully, Chris arrived a few minutes later, and Elsa set to work making air-popped popcorn. And then, the pie was done in plenty of time to watch the movie while eating pie a la mode.

* * *

The End...for now!


End file.
